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Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Episode Review
Episode #109, "When Sparks Fly"
Original Episode Airdate - August 1st, 2003
Two teenage boys goof off in an abandoned power plant and stumble into a weakened Electro. Electro has been hiding in the plant plotting his electrifying comeback and only Spider-Man's timely arrival saves the two teens from becoming toast. Over at Empire State University in Professor Williams' Chemistry class Sally is unnerved when her computer sends her a message completely on its own. Later, while she is studying in her room an eerie vision of Electro appears on her TV screen. Sally was at the fraternity party the night that Max was turned into Electro. It seems that Electro has come back to claim Sally because he loves her and wants them to be together. Electro plans to zap Sally into an electrical being like himself so that they can become a couple. Spider-Man must come to find a way to save Sally from the fate that Electro has in store for her and must rely on a little help from Harry Osborn and Mary-Jane Watson to stop an unnatural coupling.
Credits
Screenplay By: Morgan Grenda
Directed By: Vincent Edwards
Music By: John Digweed, Nick Muir and William Anderson
Animation By: Mainframe
Guest Starring:Ethan Embry as Electro, Cree Summers as Proffesor Williams
Review and Media by Stu:
This episode was the first of any of the villain's returns to the series,
as Electro was originally introduced in "The Party." I'm glad someone was brought back, and the show was beginning to become
far too much of a villain of the week show, which is rarely ever good. I know it keeps the shows fresh, but the potential
for rematches is always a great one in superhero cartoons. Due to the fact Spider-Man had actually met the villain before,
this episode had a slightly different tone to the other episodes. For a great change of pace, Spider-Man didn't mock the
villain. I love Spidey's one-liners as much as the next guy, but the lack of humour really helped drive home that
Spider-Man thought Electro was a threat. This was evident in more than one scene. Spider-Man rushing to revive Professor
Williams and Peter blatantly telling Harry that he was going off to find Spider-Man. Considering how most of Harry's
characterisation was usually him dealing with how much he hated Spider-Man, it was quite a weird experience to hear.
Max wasn't the typical "Ha Ha! Time for revenge!" villain he has in "The Party," he was lonely and wanted acceptance,
as Peter stated at the end of the pilot episode. While he did take things too far, it had more of a sense of understanding
to it, as he obviously was a troubled person, who was now a freak and this made him far more interesting here than he was
in "The Party." I wasn't too fond of him turning Sally into an Electro, especially as the whole scenario appeared to be
based on a single smile back in "The Party."
This episode really did have more of the feeling that you where watching a cartoon about a superhero, it was a
Spider-Man episode, there was very little Peter in it, and Spider-Man himself was nearly killed, as he used himself
as a conductor when trying to drain Electro of his power. Unfortunately, what could have been a cool scene of seeing
Max forever feeling guilty of his crimes,
Despite those problems with the episode, I truly enjoyed it, but maybe it is just because I am a huge Spidey fan.
Screenshots
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